A Poem By Any Other Name
by TheNextFolchart
Summary: Harry Potter poetry
1. Ordinarily

**Ordinarily**

_For rhead_

* * *

Ordinarily, her head

is in the clouds.

It lassos the birds and

darts between fantasies,

and she's Dreamy, Dreamy, Dreamy -

and she won't come down for anything.

.

(Not even for you.)

(Especially not for _the Baron__._)

.

When she leaves, she leaves you with a Kiss

and a Promise and a tittering little laugh,

and you have a terrible feeling that

you will never

see

her

again.

.

And when she comes home again, her head is farther than the clouds -

it perches on tails of comets,

swings on the stars,

rockets through the atmosphere -

and she's Dreamy, Dreamy, Dreamy,

but there is something about her eyes

that makes you think she's horrified.

.

(You ask, but she only shakes her head.)

.

(Ordinarily, her feet are on the ground -

but now she stays in her palace in the sky

and refuses Reality,

and she Dreams, Dreams, Dreams

of Dark Forests and the Nightmares that happen there.)

.

* * *

_[Battleship Challenge: E9 - "You're usually in the clouds," he said. "But today you're in outer space. Are you ill?", JF, Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon]_

_[Monthly Drabble-A-Thon: Helena Ravenclaw]_

_[Twelve Days of Christmas Style Challenge: Five Era fics - Founders Era (2/5)]_

_[Call It Heads or Tails Challenge: Heads - write a poem]_

_[Globetrotter Drabble Competition: Magna Carta - write about the Founders Era]_


	2. Red and Gold and You

**Red and Gold and You**

_For Taylor (Semblance of Sanity)_

* * *

Did you know, my love, that the first time I saw you,

Everything in my world turned red

And gold, and

Nobody looked quite as handsome as Gryffindor's newest Lion:

.

A boy who went by the

Name of

Dean Thomas.

.

So can you blame me, my love, for trying

Everything I could to talk to you?

And can you forgive me for the

Mishaps - for the roses, for the

Unsigned Valentines, for the

Serenades that made you cringe?

.

(Admit it: you secretly

Really

Enjoyed them all)

.

There was no hope for us back then, was there - not at first, not

As schoolboys, not when I was too timid and

You were too busy

Loving all the wrong people - and not when the

Only thing was had in common was a Common

Room and a Dormitory and a

School.

.

Oh, but things are different now, my love.

Now we have the Battle in common, and the Victory, and

Each other, and

.

The memory of the

Room of Requirement, where we stood hand in hand

Under floating candles and admitted we'd loved

Each other from the very first day.

.

Please, my love, make me

A vow, because since the moment we met

I have lived in a world that is

Red and gold and _you_, and

I cannot go back to the grays of the past. So promise me

Now, my love, that you will

Grow old with me, and let me die one day in your arms.

* * *

_Now go back and read only the first letter of each line ;)_

_._

_[Battleship Challenge: Floating candles, awkward serenades]_

_[Heads or Tails Challenge: Write in first person past tense]_

_[Globetrotter Competition: __Lisbon, Portugal – Write about someone who is completely devoted to another person]_


	3. Imperfect

**Imperfect**

_For Remi (reminiscent-afterthought)_

* * *

_Oh, I kept the first for another day!_

_Yet knowing how way leads on to way,_

_I doubted if I should ever come back._

_\- _The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

* * *

She didn't mind that it was pouring rain -

Rain was more interesting than sunshine,

Because it was cold, and

Dangerous, and altogether

Imperfect.

.

(And Merlin knew

Lily Evans was

Imperfect.)

.

They climbed the hill hand in hand,

And twice she slipped, and twice he

Caught her.

Her dress was torn, and her feet were

Bare, and everything about her

Was alive and wild and

Imperfect.

.

And the two of them didn't make _sense -_

Because Lily Evans liked rules and

James Potter liked chaos

And _didn't she think she was better suited_

_For a boy-next-door like Severus Snape?_

.

(Secretly she thought she'd turn back someday

And give the boy next door a chance -

But for now she tread down the rarer path

With the boy who was so

Imperfect

For her.)

.

At the top of the hill he told her to

Close her eyes

(And she said no -

Because if he wanted chaos, then

She was going to break every rule she could find.)

.

_Close your eyes_, he said again, and

For the second time

She said no.

.

_Then look_, he said, and he knelt,

And in the middle of the rain he offered her

A star yoked to a silver band.

_Look at this_, _and tell me whether_

_You think_

_We could be_

_Perfect._

.

(She smiled and shook her head.

_Not perfect_, she said, because perfect was

Sunshine, and Merlin knew

Lily Evans

Preferred rain.)

.

And she kissed him until

They were thoroughly soaked

In thunder and mud

And each other.

.

* * *

_[Battleship Challenge: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost]_

_[100 prompts: Climbing; "Look at this"]_

_[Monthly Drabble-A-Thon: Weather]_

_[Globetrotter Competition:__ Saint Petersburg, Russia – use the phrase "three time's the charm" as inspiration.__]_

_[Heads or Tails Challenge: Second Level B - Tails - third person past tense]_

_[Twelve Days of Christmas Style Challenge: Five Eras - Marauders Era (5/5)]_


	4. Shining

**Shining**

_An Acrostic_

* * *

As the train pulls into its Station, you take a

Moment to look around for the very last time.

Everything is unusually shabby, as if the

Lights have been dulled and flattened with grime - or maybe

It has always looked this way,

And only those who have left Hogwarts can see its truth.

.

Because you would swear that when you jumped

On this train for the very first time,

Nothing about it seemed dull.

Everything was so _new _back then, and

_Shining_, and now it just_ isn't._

.

Lucky, then, that there's a girl right next to you who shines on her own, with

Open arms and intense eyes and a smile that is almost

Vicious - and lucky that girl's fierce kiss is

Everything you have ever wanted - and lucky that

She _loves you._

.

(Because you don't know yet, do you, that with

Every passing second this girl you're so

Lucky to have moves one inch closer to

Lord Voldemort.

And you don't know that in the end, she's the one who kills you.)

.

* * *

_[Monthly Drabble-A-Thon: Amelia Bones]_

_[I Kissed a Girl Competition]_

_[Globetrotter Competition:__London, England – Write about King's Cross Station__]_


	5. The Phoenix and the Basilisk

**The Phoenix and the Basilisk**

_or "The Undoing of Salazar Slytherin"_

* * *

She's fire, isn't she -

Because she blazes when she's angry, and when she's triumphant.

She glows when she weeps,

Ignites when she dreams,

(Smoulders when she looks at you,)

And even her robes are the hue of

Bluebell Flames.

.

And then there's you:

Cold; reserved;

Green with envy

Of her shining incendiary wit.

She provokes you, she _dares _you,

She beckons with one finger and she tosses you a wink and she

Offers you _everything._

(And she tears you apart with her fiery tongue.)

.

Because ice must love fire from afar

Or else destroy itself for the sake of a kiss,

And neither is more agonizing than the other.

.

(You let her kill you in the end, don't you,

Because you'd rather be blind

Than watch the fire dance on without you.)

* * *

_[Monthly Drabble a Thon: Incendio]_

_[Heads or Tails Challenge: Opposites]_

_[Globetrotter Competition: __Alert, Nunavut, Canada – Write about someone distant and cold]_


	6. Untold

**Untold**

_An Acrostic_

* * *

_Don't go inside,_ they said -

Every room is a different

Pandora's Box, and a whispered

_Alohamora_ is enough to

Release the wonders (and

Terrors) within; but once they escape, nothing can

Make them crawl back inside their cages, because no spell on

Earth is strong enough to destroy Human

Nature, and no spell can cure

Temptation.

.

Only the Unspeakables walk those halls, and they sealed their

Fates the moment they touched the doorknobs.

.

Maybe it's better that way, though, with

You sitting in the darkness forever while the

Secrets of the universe fester within

Their rooms: one room devoted

Entirely to Life, and one to Death; a

Room for Time, a room for Space; a room with something

Inside that nobody has

Ever been able to name, and _maybe that's for a reason -_

(Some secrets are better left untold.)

* * *

_[Monthly Drabble a Thon: Department of Mysteries]_

_[Globetrotter Competition: __Argentina – Write about someone/something foreign, in any sense of the word]_

_[30 Harry Potter Prompts: Magic]_

_]_


	7. The Shack

**The Shack**

_A Shakespearian Sonnet_

* * *

The Shrieking Shack is useless nowadays.

Its friends have grown too old for moonlit sprees.

The dog is gone; the werewolf moved away;

The rat is missing, and the stag is free.

.

When they were young, the friends had stayed all night.

They'd made the Shrieking Shack their monthly home.

They'd come each time the moon was high and bright -

But nowadays the Shack is on its own.

.

It sits there like an old abandoned ship,

For no one wants to enter anymore.

The voices calling, "Moony, let it rip!"

Are only echoes lying on the floor.

.

(But every time the moon is full, the Shack

Still tells itself its friends are coming back)

.

* * *

_[2015 New Years Resolution Challenge: write poetry]_

_[Quidditch League Truth or Dare: write a poem with the line "and let it rip"]_


End file.
